photo by Ben Thacker

Zachg is an incredibly freewheeling rapper from Broward County, Florida who recently relocated to Oakland. He writes for Vice magazine, and Mishka’s Bloglin, works in the medical cannabis industry, and pieces together whatever else he can to feed his fire. Imagine if Why? and Outkast had a lovechild who studied Hindustani Classical music, Brian Eno, John Cage, and Terry Riley. That would be Zachg, in a nutshell, albeit a rather strange nutshell, but a nutshell nonetheless.

His life started on the frontier of South Florida’s Everglades in its last days before settlement crept in and turned wilderness to suburbia. The wild Everglades he knew as a young man is no more, but having made a huge impression on Zach, it manages to make its way into his music phantasmically. His beats suggest an expansive continuum that upon first listen may seem somewhat featureless, but with careful attention a vast network begins to shimmer slowly and reveal that what seemed like endless unchanging repetition is teeming with life. But at the center of it all are the drums. Big, full, driving drums. He continuously renders a soundscape for an endless drive along Alligator Alley, or down I-75: drums bangin as the whip mashes, tunes floating out and blending into the endless ether of tropical life while weed smoke fills the air.

This music is hip hop, in part at least. Hip hop is certainly its impetus, and hip hop is the methodology it’s grounded in, but it simultanesouly owes a great deal of its sound to American Minimalism, Hindustani Classical music, and a select group of artists across many genres in history. Zach has been rapping and making beats since 2000. He got his start making jokey freestyle tapes with friends and quickly moved on to freestyling and battling at weekly hip hop events in Orlando, Florida. With the acquisition of a Boss Dr. Sample Zach began making beats and recording. This lead to learning a variety of instruments, studying esoteric musical styles, and learning how to use the studio itself as an instrument. however, until “Anotha Kinda Southern” it was all just experiments, and the music was never really intended for an audience. This album marks Zach’s first attempt at crafting pop music. These songs are the culmination of more than a decade of work. They tell one man’s interpretation of the history of music, and reveal the organization of sound as he imagines it.

This is peace music, and empowerment music. It’s meant to help people feel their place in the universe, and know that they can achieve anything as long as they have found that place of theirs.

With love,
Zach

Click HERE to download the 1 sheet for Anotha Kinda Southern.